Deerfield wins emotional season opener just days after two players lost fathers to COVID
Joseph Kennerly Jr. jogged back toward the goal line at JD and Alice Butler Stadium on Friday, and thought about what his father might have shouted to him over the fence in Deerfield Beach if he had been able to be there.
Joseph Kennerly Sr. was the sort of parent who was at everything. He coached dozens and dozens of future Deerfield Beach players as a coach with the Deerfield Beach Packer Rattlers, so he was a fixture around the football program at Deerfield Beach High School, in the crowd for every game to watch his son and all his former players represent for their city. He always told his son — all of 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds — his job was to bring the energy and this was the perfect time.
Edison’s kick bounced near the 5-yard line and Kennerly Jr. scooped it up. He dashed down the right sideline, cut back up the middle, found a hole, raced into the end zone and then broke down in tears. It had been only four days since his father died of COVID-19 and his return, a game-changing score in the third quarter of a 30-22 win, was exactly how he wanted to honor him.
“I was just thinking about my pops, telling my old boy to be with me still, keep me going,” said Kennerly Jr., who orally committed to the FCS Youngstown State Penguins on Aug. 17. “This week has been really traumatizing for me. ... I was just heartbroken.”
It was, as Bucks coach Jevon Glenn put it after the victory, “a hell of a week.” Last Friday, Deerfield Beach tackle Aaron Hicks’ brother died from complications from a seizure. On Monday, Kennerly Sr. died from COID and so did star defensive tackle Alton Tarber IV’s grandmother. On Tuesday, Tarber’s father, Alton Tarber III, died after battling the coronavirus, too.
Tarber didn’t rejoin the team until Friday. Glenn scheduled an extra session with the therapist he has been seeing since star wide receiver Bryce Gowdy’s suicide in 2018. They’ve all been spending the last week planning funerals.
They took a break from it Friday to play their first game of the regular season and the Bucks (1-0) beat one of the top teams in Class 3A in a back-and-forth contest between state-championship hopefuls.
Kennerly Jr.’s return came just 19 seconds after star wide receiver Nathaniel Joseph ran the opening kickoff of the second half back 99 yards for a touchdown to give the Red Raiders (0-1) their first lead of the game at 14-9. The lead changed hands twice more in the second half after Kennerly gave Deerfield Beach a 16-14 lead, and the Bucks finally finished off the win by blocking a potential game-winning field goal and returning it for a touchdown with two seconds left.
“We thought we was going to win by a little more than we did,” said Luke Collins, who replaced fellow quarterback Michael Merdinger for the Bucks’ last two drives and threw the game-winning touchdown to wide receiver Tastean Reddicks with 5:12 left. “We’ve got to go back to the drawing board.”
Glenn didn’t know if Tarber IV was going to play when the day began. On Tuesday, they both talked to Tarber III on the phone around 2:30 p.m., right as the school day ended. Tarber III got out of practice at about 7:30 p.m. to the news about his father’s death.
Tarber III, who committed to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Aug. 17, wasn’t at school the next two days and Glenn didn’t expect him there Friday until he saw him in the morning. All the players, who were reeling from an unfathomable week, decided to suit up against Edison.
“It was really important. It took my mind of things,” Kennerly Jr. said. “I got to seize the moment with the guys.”
Deerfield Beach jumped out to a 9-0 lead when star running back Jaziun Patterson, who committed to the Iowa Hawkeyes on Aug. 17, ran for 80 yards and a touchdown on his first four carries. The defense held the Red Raiders to negative-11 yards in the first quarter — with Tarber IV notching a tackle for loss on the final play of the period — and gave up its only touchdown of the first half after an interception set up Edison at the Bucks’ 17-yard line.
Deerfield Beach took a 9-7 lead into the break and led 16-15 after the first 35 seconds of the third quarter. The Red Raiders went back ahead 22-16 when quarterback Champ Harris connected with wide receiver British Mitchell for an 81-yard touchdown, but the Bucks went ahead for good when Collins replaced Merdinger, ran twice for 32 yards and found Reddicks for a 14-yard touchdown on his third play.
With the game on the line, Edison lined up for a 35-yard field goal and Deerfield Beach safety Harlem Howard, who had already had an interception and fumble recovery, blocked the kick, scooped it up and returned it for a touchdown.
Glenn fought through tears while he explained what the win meant and then he addressed his team like it was any other game. They tried to treat it like one, so he did, too.
“As a coach, I broke down several times,” Glenn said. “I couldn’t have played. They’re better young men than I am a grown men because I barely made it through this, so I’m super proud of them.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 11:40 PM.
